HACK THE BURMESE JUNTA'S WEBSITE

To all hacktivists out there: please deface and run a dos on the State Peace and Development Council website.
WWW.MYANMAR.COM

Images from Burma

From Ko Hitke's blog
The monks and the people are still marching, despite the government's repression.

Update: A summary of the day's events from the Australian.

Arrests, tear gas and beatings in Yangon

According to witnesses, the police used tear gas and arrested 80 monks this afternoon in Yangon.

Update: BBC story.

Update II: The Irrawady has the latest, straight from Rangoon. And a great diary at the DailyKos.

[Picture by Aung Hla Tun, 09/26/07, Reuters]

The barefoot art of war

Beautiful article from Der Spiegel, via Salon.com

And from The Age
Burma sends soldiers to monastries

The picture is from this morning at the Shwedagon Pagoda, released by Burmese democracy activists.

And so it starts

After another round of gigantic demonstrations today, the hated SLORC has imposed a curfew, declared Yangon and Mandalay off-limits and deployed troops in the main cities.

Here's the story (Reuters India): Myanmar government imposes dusk to dawn curfew

Today Bush took a strong stance against the Burmese Generals at the UN. The hypocrisy of the Bush administration is boundless: based on their logic and their bullshit "freedom agenda," they should have sent an expeditionary force to Myanmar a long time ago. They obviously didn't. Because of their catastrophic Middle Eastern adventures, they have lost all the moral authority they could brought to bear on the Myanmar government's patrons (China mostly). So now we're left with principled declarations that are as lofty as they're toothless. Bush, the guy who authorized torture, renditions and surveillance over Americans (all crimes under American law), is now giving lessons on democracy and human rights to the Burmese military autocrats. The thugs that make up the State Peace and Development Council, who've been at it for much longer (it being torture, surveillance and oppression), are shaking in their jackboots. They also know Bush will do like them eventually, and like every other retiring dictator, and have himself amnestied.

A friend noticed that Burma was renamed Myanmar by the SLORC back in 1989. I have no position on the best and most appropriate nomenclature. In the actual Burmese language, the difference between Burma/Barma/Bama/Myanmar is barely audible. The SLORC did it as a public relations/propaganda stunt directed at the West. It was corporate rebranding of the worst kind. A little like cancer peddlers Philip Morris magically turning into altruistic, elevated and very latin high-brow Altria... The wire services use Myanmar, while the BBC has stuck with Burma. So I don't know what to do. And I know that in a political struggle of that sort, semantics are fundamental. So I'll think about it.

I can't help but find some irony and poetic justice in the fact that George Orwell started his career in Burma.

Respect

"You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can't sit on it too long."
Boris Yeltsin (of all people!)

For a few hours, fear and helplessness seem to have changed sides. But the situation is getting extremely tense. The SLORC must respond to the challenge, and quickly, or falter. However, these few days of protest are an unbearable chink in the junta's armor. The fiction that they and their goons enjoy any kind of support or authority is gone. They do not own fear any more. They are left with only violence.

Most likely, this will end in bloodshed.







Free Myanmar!

the latest news (from the BBC) : Burmese monks defy army warning

In support the people of Myanmar

Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Free Myanmar


[Associated Press]

Urban wine

Beautiful story in today's Washington Post, about an exiled Iraqi Jew in New York, Mr. Latif Jiji, who makes his own wine from grapes growing all around his townhouse. It makes me want to do that, someday (and the weather in Los Angeles would be close to perfect).

Bordello

Amazing show tonight at Bordello on 1st Street. First, the amazingly funky Casxio - beautiful songs, beautiful band, superb riffs and deep, deep bass. David Byrne meets Daft Punk. And then, the incredibly charismatic Sam Sparro - the reincarnation of Iggy Pop as a funky beast. More later.

Young Marble Giants

They're so awesome. So minimal. And she's so completely charismatic. Respect.

Perseids

We went to Malibu to watch the Perseids last night. We planned a nice and refreshing picnic with sushi rolls, goat cheese, saucisson, red wine, melon. It was a wonderful evening on surfriders' beach. Didn't see many shooting stars though - but those we saw were spectacular.

LA earthquake

There was a little earthquake tonight - a 4.5 apparently - nothing to write home about. But we felt it around 1 am. We were in the kitchen, finishing up our glasses of Ridge ATP Sullivan Zinfandel 2005. Things kind of shook for a brief moment. No tremors, just a bang! and it was gone. Probably a plate releasing some energy - it turned out the quake centered around Northridge (lots of pent-up seismic energy there...). So it wasn't as big as the last earthquake I experienced, some time ago in Baños, down in Ecuador.